Filipino Martial Art – Edged Weapon Impact System

Pekiti Tirsia Kali

Grand Tuhon Leo Tortal Gaje, Jr.

Pekiti Tirsia Kali is a Filipino close quarter fighting system that focuses on edged weapons. It is based on mobility, counterattacking and triangular movement and clearly comes from the era when when it was common for Filipino men to carry swords and knives. Up to today, it encompasses a wide range of traditional weapons and tactics, namely:

The Pekiti Tirsia Kali system originates from the provinces of Panay and Negros Occidental and was created by the Tortal clan. The family patriarch and Grandmaster of Pekiti Tirsia, Grand Tuhon Conrado B. Tortal, passed the system to his only grandson Grand Tuhon Leo Tortal Gaje, Jr.

The system became a favorite of many Law Enforcement agencies, with Grand Tuhon Gaje’s creation of Safety Baton and Edged Weapon Awareness/Strategic Knife Defense programs, which reduced the liabilities of officers and departments by teaching officers to target areas of the body that would be incapacitating and yet minimizing the risk of civil liability due. Grand Tuhon Gaje was later appointed National Training Director for the Justice System Training Association and the U.S. Police Defensive Tactics Association and eventually became the Technical Advisor in the highly acclaimed police training video for edged weapon strategy and tactics “Surviving Edged Weapons”.

Pekiti Tirsia became the first and only Filipino Martial Art system recognized as part of the official doctrine of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. In 1998 Pekiti Tirsia became the official close-quarters combat system of the Force Reconnaissance Battalion, Philippine Marine Corps. The system is now being taught to other units of the AFP and the police special operations unit. The Philippine Force Recon Marines have trained US special operations forces and other combat units in close-quarters combat, demonstrating the effectiveness of the system.

Pekiti Tirsia has now gone full circle, from its roots in the Visayas, to its spread around the world and its fame as a proven edged weapons fighting system, and now as a preferred close quarter combat system for the modern Filipino soldier and law enforcement officer.